Three steps to successful blogging

A successful blog needs great content – and a steady stream of it = to achieve it’s goals. Creating great content requires three things:

Knowing your products and service

Knowing your audience

Commitment to the task at hand

Let’s unpack these a little bit.

Knowing your products and services

Whatever line of work you’re in, chances are you’re passionate about what you do. Otherwise you wouldn’t be doing it, right? Passion is the number one predictor of performance, so if you love what you do, you’ll do it well. And since I’m speaking to people who have built their business, services and organisations from the ground up, you no doubt know what you do very well.

The rest of the world doesn’t.

We need your expertise to educate us about what you do, and blogging is your best platform for sharing that message. Share your passion and you’ll ignite the passion of others.

Knowing your audience

What you do, what you’ve created, you’ve created to serve a need. Who needs what you do? Are they old or young? Male or female? Are they affected by the economy, and if so, in what way? Where do they live? Where do they work? What do they do? Do they have families? Who are their friends? When you know the answers to these questions, you can start to meet their needs by showing them how what you offer does just that: meet their needs.

Commitment and consistency

Last but certainly not least, you need to make a commitment to getting fresh content out there, and you need to stick to it. Ideally, you want to be sharing content at least once a week, in some cases more often than that. It helps enormously to decide what you’re trying to communicate, then outline the steps involved in getting that message to your market. Each week, unpack the next step in the series, and make sure that they build on one another to develop trust in your work.

Speaking from your heart about your passion develops a sense of authenticity in your writing. Even so, however, it can be time consuming, and not everyone has the gift of the gab. Hiring a writer with the ability to understand what you’re trying to communicate, and the skill to communicate it effectively, will save your hours of time, and increase your effectiveness as well. Ready? Let’s get started!

Vanessa Davies is the head writer, senior designer, social media adept and business owner at aXent Associates. Online marketing, blogging, home education, lifelong learning, optimal nutrition and personal growth are high on her list of priorities. You can follow Vanessa on Twitter or Google+.